Students work in the Math Emporium at the midtown campus of western Connecticut State University.
Photo by Peggy Stewart
Photo: Contributed Photo/ Peggy Stewart, Contributed Photo

Students work in the Math Emporium at the midtown campus of western...

Students work in the Math Emporium at the midtown campus of western Connecticut State University.
Photo by Peggy Stewart
Photo: Contributed Photo

Students work in the Math Emporium at the midtown campus of western...

From left, State Rep Bob Godfrey, Emilio Collar, associate professor, management information systems, James Donegan, Dean of the Ancell School of Business and Jim Kennedy, the 2013 recipient of the Macricosta's Entrepreneur of the Year Award, are present at the official dedication of the Learning Commons at the westside campus of Western Connecticut State Universaity.
Photo: Contributed Photo/ Peggy Stewart, Contributed Photo

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The numbersConnecticut state colleges and universities report:Two-thirds of students entering community colleges and one-fifth of students entering state universities are assigned to remedial and developmental math and/or English courses.Nationally, half of all undergraduates and 70 percent of community-college students take at least one remedial course.

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DANBURY --Two new initiatives at Western this year are designed to help at-risk students stay in school, improve their grades and finish in four years.

Western professors are credited with the idea because they want to improve academic performance, graduation rates and reduce the time needed to earn a degree.

"For ten years, we have been experimenting with different modes of delivery for the lower- level math classes," math department Chairman David Burns said at the dedication of the centers Thursday.

"The emporium model was started at Virginia Tech, which creates a space, redesigns the math course but also returns the responsibility of learning back to the students," he said.

A state law, effective next fall, requires state schools to replace costly noncredit remedial courses with support in credit-bearing, entry-level courses.

In Connecticut, about two-thirds of students in state community colleges and one-fifth in the four state universities are assigned to remedial and developmental math and/or English courses, according to state reports.

Nationally, half of all undergraduates and 70 percent of community-college students take at least one remedial course, according to "Core Principles for Transforming Remedial Education: A Joint Statement," a report based on studies on Community College Research Center at Columbia University, which found the nation's remedial-education system is broken.

In the past, freshmen who had scored below 500 on the SAT math test would take a noncredit remedial math course that could affect credits needed for their degree.

Now, they will take a new four-credit, one-semester course that covers familiar material as well as new material for the general education math course.

Freshmen will work on assignments in the math emporium five hours a week, using software that walks them through course work, as well as teachers on hand to help them.

The idea is to complete the work in one semester, so they will be more likely to finish their degree on time, Burns said.

Math teacher Senan Hayes, development coordinator for the Emporium, wrote a workbook showing students what to do before starting their homework.

Once students are proficient with homework, they take a practice test and if they pass, they can take a real test, Burns said.

"The notion of forcing every student to learn every topic in the same class at the same time is not comfortable for me at this level," Burns said. "Everyone has something they can't do."

This method will allow the students to move at their own pace.

"It's a shift in the paradigm," Western Provost Jane McBride Gates said. "Traditionally, students sat in a classroom and the teachers talked and they had textbooks. This is completely different."

The students will learn by doing, with step-by-step software. Desks are set up to allow students to collaborate, address the state law to provide effective remedial support and it has impressive measurable results nationally, Gates said.

The law allows schools to provide an intensive college-readiness program and allow a student a maximum of one semester of remedial support that is not embedded, provided the support advances the student toward earning a degree, and is approved by the Board of Regents for Higher Education.

The Learning Commons takes a different approach to reach students with low grade-point averages who are most at risk for dropping out, about 200 of 1,200 fbusiness majors.

Ancell Associate Dean Emilio Collar created the program based on strategies he devised to get through graduate school.

The Learning Commons area has six computers, two private rooms with large computer monitors for group work and it is connected to the library for easy access.

But the advising is unique said Collar, who has run this as a pilot for four years but now will have a trained assistant help with advising.

During his pilot, students increased their grade-point averages by 30 percent and halved the time needed to finish a degree.

The advisors will help students select courses to take them in the proper sequence and not be overwhelmed, he said.

"I meet with them constantly and change from being an advisor to a coach," he said.

They discover they can do more than they thought, once they manage their workload and believe they can succeed, he said.

"Once they find the reason to succeed, they begin to realize what they can do. Then it is like a train and they develop motivation to do the work," he said.

Collar is writing a book on his strategies, including time management and other academic management tips.